Mollie McGuigan writes in the Telegraph about the gentrification of Mildmay... Islington Lite. Interestingly, Mildmay may be closer to Dalston, but the crime figures compare very favourably with Islington's.
Any advance on 18 years... the amount of time Hometrack's latest research suggests we're going to stay in our current dwelling, to avoid the expense of moving? Yes, actually. According to FirstHips.com - one of those online stores in the Home Information Pack racket - the figure's much higher. In fact, according to them, 9% of us were so stressed out by the process of moving house that we'll never do it again, ever. Obviously, that's not science. But what is interesting is that 42% of respondents said they lost sleep over their move, 27% said it caused domestic arguments, 20% drank or smoked more, 6% said they were so badly affected by stress they had to take time off work. Roll that figure out across the number of UK homeowners, you get 1.4 million sickies. The rest of those figures:
5% lost weight
4% gained weight
4% panic attacks
2% needed anti-depressants
2% saw a doctor
Now what I'd like to see is a proper Venn Diagram... how many lost weight, smoked more and argued... how many had panic attacks, drank more and took sickies... how many gained weight, argued and lost sleep, say, but didn't need anti-depressants. Or perhaps not.
Rosalind Russell - writing in the Telegraph - looks at new research by Hometrack that suggests the average time spent in a property before more moving on is set to reach 18 years. The reasons are interesting... not least the negative effects of low inflation. which means a large mortgage remains a large mortgage in comparison to earnings and other expenditure for far longer. The net effect is less mobility - bad for the market, bad for employers. Read it here.
According to Nationwide, it's a 1.4% jump for November, bringing annual inflation to 9.6%. Financial markets are pricing another rise interest rates in the New Year at 50% chance. Click here to download a copy of Nationwide's report in pdf format.
It's Zurich's landlord insurance claims Top err Nine (spot the corporation that needs a lesson in PR... top ten, it's always ten. What? You don't have a tenth? So? Just make it up. At that end of the list, it could be anything... killer bugs, inflammable bananas... take your pick):
[via The Move Channel]
Apparently, the graffiti problem outside Arsenal turncoat Ashley Cole's "north London mansion block" has become so bad, he's decided to sell his place and move. Anybody know where Cole lives? Anybody care to send us a pic?
Today's headlines have been grabbed by a new Shelter report revealing 1.6 million British young people are living in cramped or inadequate housing. According to the DCLG, the (English) figure is 20,000. According to the Association of London Government, the figure in the Capital alone is 200,000. Hm. Today's Guardian runs the best of the broadsheet coverage, and makes Shelter's report available as a pdf download. Go here.
Head on over to the Nationwide Media Centre for some very useful advice. "FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF MORTGAGE DAY SEES CONSUMERS STILL BEING "RIPPED OFF"... reads the headline. But don't worry, because "Nationwide gives tips on how to avoid unnecessary mortgage fees and charges".
One of the important ones is: "Don't use a lender that keeps its best deals for 'brand new customers only'."
But we all know that, don't we? Because we're endlessly reminded, by this gentleman, off the telly:
So it's with more than a little surprise that the Rat and Mouse learns that, from December, Nationwide's best-deal 4.84% two-year fixed-rate deal will be available to, err, brand new customers only.
Here's an interesting one, on Arabin Road in Brockley. Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds buys you 552 square feet of open-plan living converted out of a former commercial garage (originally, a coach house, built in the 1840s) and still featuring the inspection pit. It's with KFH, particulars here.
It's not London, but it's interesting. A Glasgow tenant who set up a website criticising North Glasgow Housing Association is being threatened with eviction for what it describes as "harassment and anti-social behaviour". The wesbite's here. See what you think.
Morgan Stanley's David Miles knows how to grab headlines, but he also took a lonely stance when, last week, and to the delight of the media, he forecast an imminent house price crash. Now, Jonathan Said, of The Centre for Economics and Business Research, replies with a simple rebuttal:
The United Kingdom does not have a large enough stock of houses.
According to Said, a combination of population growth and planning restrictions will continue to ensure that demand outpaces supply and... well, we all know what happens then. Said expected house prices inflation to slow from 8.2% this year, to 4.5% in 2007 and 1.3% in 2008, before picking up again. Of course, house price inflation is local... in London, who knows?
Last Tuesday, inspired by a piece in the Guardian - we asked How - exactly - does the Mandelson do it? On Saturday, ThisIsLondon tried to answer that literally, with an almost forensic scrutiny of Mandelson's property finances. But there's still an awful lot of money to be accounted for... £768,000, to be precise, which he managed to get his hands on to make up the £1.65 million deposit he laid down for the (can I have that in peach?) Primrose Hill home, below.
Yes, it's Eaton Square, SW1... I'm not trying to pull the wool over your eyes with some other Eaton Square in, Glasgow, say. The catch is the lease, which has just another 14 years left. But, you say, you can extend a lease. That's true, I say, you can. But it might cost you a packet, say Colin & Justin, who write further about the property, here.
According to Land Registry figures, the average cost of a house in Putney is now £460,000... 16.9% up on last year. This quarter, flats have shown the greatest price increase. Putney is currently the most expensive area within Wandsworth Borough. More here.
Our friendly approach, dedicated staff and professionalism, to name but a few, are examples of the things that make Amelia King Ltd a household name and have helped us grow to the burgeoning company we are today.
Oh yeah. That, and illegally ripping offprivate ads without the knowledge or consent of the vendors and advertising the properties (above the vendors' asking price) as part of your own list... Apparently.
The motto on Glastonbury estate agent Ralph Bending's website runs... The most fun you can have with an estate agent (and that might well be true; unless, of course, you throw in a barber's chair, a roll of gaffer tape and a 9-iron).
It's a good job charity isn't dependent on gratitude. Thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader who sent us this astonishing tale of the Hurricane Katrina victims given a $75,000 home by a Memphis church, only to immediately flip the property for a $13,000 profit. But, hey... it's not like they weren't gracious about it:
The church was also shocked by an interview the couple gave with WHBQ-TV in Memphis. "I really don't like this area," said Delores Thompson. "I really didn't, and I didn't know anybody, so that's why I didn't move in and I sold it."
It's good to see the Guardian telling the truth about Islington. If you didn't know London, you' d believe - due to stereotype - that everybody who lives in Islington works in politics, law or the media, and is minted, obsessed with house prices and wine, and dresses artfully distressed at the weekends. In fact... that's what I suggest we all call Islingtonia. What's Islington like? Over to the Guardian:
Vicky Walsh is a typical Islington resident... Like more than 13,000 other families she is on Islington council's waiting list to be rehoused. She needs rehousing because she and her partner live with their two seven-month old twin boys in a one-bedroom flat that an estate agent would call compact and everybody else would call small.
The piece goes on to detail Islington's "bid" system for scarce council accommodation, in which points awarded for dependent children and medical conditions. It's a situation the local MP describes as Dickensian. It's an important read, and recommended.
Twenty-three of the world's richest people live here, according to research by Forbes. New York has more, but they're mainly Americans. The thing about the London-based billionaire is he's probably a foreign billionaire:
London still attracts the elite of the world's rich and successful. And it can lay claim unchallenged to one title: it is the magnet for the world's billionaires. [Forbes]
ThisIsLondon examines the issue and concludes that a large part of the attraction comes in tax breaks. The foreign billionaire might well be paying less tax than you or I.
It's a game, in which you pilot a bulldozer and revel in the destruction of homes and businesses. Something tells me it won't be Number One in the holiday season gift list in the Middle East. For a glimpse into the mind of an altogether different species, go here and read the "review"... actually quite the most stupid piece of writing you'll encounter.
Where? According to the Telegraph, it's the bit inside Bayswater Road, Edgware Road and Sussex Gardens, and it's getting a £20 million revamp courtesy of landlords the Church Of England. There's a website, and there's apparently an influx of investors rubbing their hands at the unarguables (like, properties half the price of equivalents on the other side of Hyde Park). More here.
I might be wrong, but I think this is the first time the Rat and Mouse has featured data from the Inland Revenue. I wonder why that is? Anyway, the news is that transactions dropped in October to their lowest level since May 2005. There were 118,000 in October, compared to 147,000 in September (and those are, apparently, seasonally-adjusted figures... presumably adjusted after-the-fact by other economists... or is the IR in the business of seasonally-adjusting property transaction data?). Anyway, more here.
They're all property developers - meeted and greeted by the Telegraph's Max Davidson, in an entertaining piece making the case for the property market's second-most hated. The geezer? A cockney with a gold-tooth who "belonged at a roulette table, with a fast blonde on his arm". The bookseller? A white-haired ecologist with a master's. The whippet? A speeding, half-blind ex-City thickie. Which goes to show... there's a BBC 1 series in there somewhere. The Hustle slot, perhaps?
Just when it looked as if the exciting spectre of a colossal property market crash was nothing but a fond memory and the fantasy of a bunch of economic survivalists, David Miles, chief economist at Morgan Stanley and former Government advisor, has made the media's day with this:
Significant falls in real house prices are needed relatively soon to match demand to supply.
His point? That "expected house price inflation" - a kind of collective will - has overcome the usual motivators for price growth (earnings, interest rates, supply-and-demand) and, well, you know how fickle people are...
I've been contacted by a new company with an adventurous spin on the house sales business. Whoever contacted me clearly didn't know how much I loathe the whole house raffle racket (don't get me started but, very briefly, the house is usually overvalued by at least £100,000, making buying a ticket about as sensible an investment as pushing £10 notes up your nose, and the target is never reached anyway, so whoever wins ends up receiving a pitiful percentage of the overall take while the organisers keep the house and lots of the cash... see, don't get me started). So I'm not exactly dancing the lambada about House4APound: an attempt - by a builder with three Cornish homes to "give away" - to turn the whole house lottery thing into a business model. The thing I absolutely loathed the most about previous ventures is the insultingly stupid way in which they were marketed. The worst? This raffle is a really great way for first-time buyers to get a foot on the rung. House4APound takes a similarly disingenuous angle:
Everyone knows how difficult it is for young couples and individuals to get on the property ladder, so how wonderful would it be to offer those people the chance to win a home of their own.
Ah, that's nice. For what it's worth, ftbs can find similar help here, here or here. Or what about this for a claim?
Now the 53-year-old [competition organiser] hopes his ingenious dial-a-des-res scheme launched today in Cornwall will give estate agency firms who charge high fees for their services a much-needed wake-up call. Trevor is convinced the competition could pave the way for a whole new approach to house sales with deals done at a fraction of the cost charged by estate agency chains up and down the country.
Good for Trevor. Personally, I'm not convinced that property raffles are going to keep John Hunt awake at night. House4APound better get a move on. They're raffling three properties, and the lines are going to remain open only until January 20. They're going to need an unprecendented number of calls before them, or it'll be (surprise, surprise) time to look at the "alternative prize" clause. Which does contain a surprise:
In the event outlined at Clause 9(a) [not enough takers to fund the handing over of the properties] above the Winners of the Competition in question will be entitled to a sum equal to the amount of the Competition fund, or a minimum of £1,000 if the Competition fund is less than £1,000 (“the Alternative Prize”). The Competition fund will be calculated as the income received by the Company from the telephone calls and SMS messages received in respect of that Competition less the Company’s publicity, administration and other costs incurred in running that Competition. Such income and costs will be certified by an independent accountant.
Hmm. Now that's different. In fact, in the worst case scenario, there's potential there for a loss. Who knows?
By "the Mandelson", I don't just mean Peter Mandelson, I mean all those of his ilk... lacking obvious talent, lacking obvious charm, subject to frequent career reversals, and yet consistently landing on their feet, holidaying on yachts, living in multi-million pound homes... never seemingly having to worry about money or even having to worry about worrying about money. Acting - in fact - as if a financially secure and luxurious lifestyle is owed them... an inevitability. Anybody else wondered the same... how does the Mandelson breed do it? Well, Jeremy Langmead - writing in the Guardian on the subject of Mandelson's new £2.4 million Regent's Park home - has been wondering exactly that, and comparing it to his own fortunes on the property ladder.
Mandelson seems to know something I don't. Admittedly, he has no school fees to pay and receives a £21,000 annual housing allowance in his Brussels post, but he isn't exactly a penny pincher. He always seems well attired (even if he was pictured at a conference last year without any socks on), eats regularly at the River Cafe and enjoys the odd holiday or two aboard a yacht.
What, exactly, is it that the Mandelson knows? Answers on an email (or in the comments) please.
The exciting news this morning is that Foxtons - the estate agents we love to hate - are considering floating on the stock exchange, at a price that would value the company at around £400 million. Foxtons profits recently reached £25 million, but it's not enough to finance their ambitious overseas expansion plans... hence the IPO notion. Would you buy a used share from John Hunt? More in the Times.
According to the constantly bullish Rightmove, the November-to-November annual inflation figure is 12.4%. It's the largest leap in annual figures from one month to the next in over two years (13.4%, in October 2005). What's more, it's all been happening in London, with the local annual inflation figure at an arguably stoopid 18.2%. Commentary here. And to see an actual, factual copy of the Rightmove pdf, click here.
Some of you may have noticed I had a spot of extremely rare server trouble this morning. It's fixed, the Rat and Mouse is back, posts to follow immediately. (By the way, if you emailed the Rat and Mouse between 8am and 2pm today, you might want to re-send... apologies.)
We haven't a clue, obviously. But - thanks to our friend Ed at Nestoria - we do know what they're most likely to type into a set of particulars. Ed's used the giant Nestoria database to compile a tag cloud of the most commonly-used adjectives to be found in particulars. Users familiar with social bookmarking software del.icio.us will know how this works. Basically, the bigger the word, the more it's used. Here it is:
Strangely beautiful, isn't it? Even if, as Ed points out, it doesn't seem to bear much relevance to what most of us experience while living in London.
Propertyfinder has published its annual who do movers hate the most? survey results, and, for the third year running, the answer is... solicitors. They've been found to obstructive, unreliable and expensive. And that's just their good points. We hate surveyors the least, apparently. While estate agents (you were wondering, weren't you?) are once again fighting it out for second place with mortgage lenders.
In the midst of what is turning out to be another period of solid growth in the housing market, banks are apparently being told they're unprepared for a reversal in fortune, and to adopt the position of preparedness for a 40% crash. You know, just in case. According to the FSA, this is a "severe but plausible scenario", and UK banks need to know how they'd cope with a giant repossession scenario.... thousands fewer customers, thousands more houses. More here.
... after a Quarterly Inflation Report today, that suggests inflation is going to settle right back much earlier than the Bank of England had figured. More here.
Haarts estate agents have made some crude calculations to give you an idea of what external factors affect the value of your home, and how much value they add or take away. Let's cut to the chase:
The Good
Mainline tube/railway station: 12%
Top state school: 11%
Motorway/dual carriageway links: 9%
Open countryside/park: 9%
Vibrant social scene: restaurant/pubs: 6%
Quality food store (Waitrose/M&S): 4%
High street facilities (e.g. banks and newsagents): 3%
Sports club/exercise facilities: 2%
Good NHS hospital: 2%
Cinema/entertainment: 1%
No doubt hoping for a juicy 80% likelihood of a crash headline, Reuters polled 32 economists and property analysts about the future for the market. But the economists assumed a cautious, thoughtful posture, and disappointed. The headlines:
* House price (annual) inflation to fall to 5% next year (last August, the prediction was 3.5%)
* Two-thirds say house prices are overvalued (down from 80% last August)
* Only 10% saw causes for a significant downturn next year
Competition is so aggressive that buyers need to have the cash available to buy immediately. "It's tough at the moment if you don't have the liquidity of the bonus buy," Ms Egerton said.
That's Lulu Egerton, of Lane Fox, Chelsea, talking to Bob Sherwood of the FT, here, about how even the rumour of massive City bonuses is enough to drive up house prices and have £5 million homes selling for £5.5 million a week after they reach the market.
Our favourite weekend property piece? This Telegraph investigation into the young lawyers, designers and other professionals who making like 1975 and squatting in London to avoid unaffordable rents. The difference - this time - is that instead of daubing the property with CND signs, they're fitting it out in Ikea, and the neighbours lurve it:
Recently, a group of squatters who moved into a five-storey house in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, were given permission to stay until March 2007 because they are effectively caretaking the property for free. The neighbours were happy to see a once-vacant property properly looked after.
According to Paul Haynes, of upmarket removals firm Cadogan Tate:
"Plasma screens and wireless internet are old news. Working in the best-heeled homes in London, we're stunned by the new home gadgets showing up in luxury homes. We always make sure to handle antiques, priceless works of art and exclusive wardrobes with neither shaking nor stirring – but moving high-tech homes is an art in itself. Handling these futuristic moves has meant we've become experts in home gadgets."
So Haynes gives his prediction of top gadgets for 2007. And being, let's face it, a boy, and knowing that at least some of our readers are boys, too, I thought I'd share the highlights with you. They include a smart table by Gorenje, which hides a mini-refrigerator in a centre console, a robot by White Box which does everything a private security guard will do while you're away (except sample your drinks cabinet and go through your wife's underwear draw) and the remarkable Plant Wall, designed to grow, internally, before your very eyes. We won't mention David Linley's faux-18th Century cabinet with built in MP3 player.... damn!
It's Reuters, again; this time with the scary news that the cost of having kids has outstripped the cost of having houses in the last year by a whole percent... rising 9% in the last 12 months, and 28% in the last four years. The cost of bringing up an average one-bedroom child now stands at a terrifying £28.50 a day (that's £180,000 from birth to the age of 21). Prices continue to rise, but some analysts point out that affordability is stretched to an unprecedented degree, and that a hard-landing in the prime central kindergarten market can't be ruled out.
What a difference a quarter of a percent can make. Or can it? Reuters takes the path of uncertainty, accepts there could be a "landing", it could be "hard", it could be "soft", but the text, and the interviews, sound like they were lifted from the Rat and Mouse circa. early 2005.
"Even if we were able to state with any confidence that prices had overshot, the way in which a correction takes place would be by no means certain," said Deutsche economist George Buckley.
It's Bank Of England day. Everybody seems agreed, interest rates will reach 5% today. The Sun - never keen to cause a panic - warns, your mortgage could easily kill you. Unfortunately, I'm going to be in meetings throughout the afternoon, and away from a computer when the news comes through.
This Is London looks at Abbey's 57-year mortgage, and calculates that, compared to the £160,000 of interest paid on a 25-year £150,000 mortgage (at 6.75%), the interest over 57 years "would be an extra £280,000, which ironically is enough money to buy a second home". Come on, in 57 years time it won't be enough to buy a second set of keys.
Am I late to the party with this? Or is it a new venture? It appears Kirstie Allsopp is moving into retail:
Moving Sense is an exclusive new range of products that I've created to help make life a little easier for people in the process of buying, selling or moving into a new home.
Cool. So what are they?
This box includes a natural wax scented candle, box of matches and some useful tips from me on how to sell your home.
Box of matches, too? Oh, I get it... that must be how the property experts apply fire to wick.
More products will apparently be available soon. In the meantime, Moving Sense... here.
First of all, in the light of recent events, there's a giant difference between would like to and plotting. But Alain de Botton takes, in this interview with Bookslut, what can only be a described as a hardline view of Hammersmith:
I live in London, which is a hideous city, I think, and I live in a part of London that is especially hideous. I'd love to just blow up the whole place and start again.
Why pick on W6? Nice bridge. Old style venue at a time when so many are being knocked down. A doctor's surgery that dares to be modern. Okay, the flyover... Botton and his dynamite... he can have that.
Readers with an interest in urban design might want to read the full interview.
The Telegraph's Ross Clark joins Winkworths, Pimlico, to get some hands on estate agent experience. It's a fascinating piece, with some real insights into the nuts-and-bolts of the job:
It certainly isn't going to be riches from day one: I will be paid a basic salary of just £12,000. On top of that I will get commission equivalent to 10 per cent of every fee I earn for Winkworths. If I sell a £300,000 flat, for which Winkworths will earn a two per cent commission of £6,000, I will pocket £600. My annual target will be to earn the company £225,000 worth of fees - in other words, to sell £11·2 million worth of property. Given that the cheapest property on offer through the Pimlico office is a one-bedroom flat for £295,000, and that prices have risen by 15 per cent in the past eight months, that shouldn't be quite as difficult as it sounds. The moment I hit this target I will receive a bonus of £5,000, taking my annual earnings to £39,500. For anything I sell beyond this I will receive a bonus of 15 per cent of every fee.
Needless to say, Clark doesn't get the good leads, but he does come away with a little more sympathy for the agents.
Well, they weren't going to let Abbey National get all the PR, were they? If Abbey can get irresponsible, HBOS can get downright crazy. Up until now, Halifax (H) have been offering 97% mortgages; Bank of Scotland (BOS) have been offering 100%. The new 125% offering will allow borrowers to buy a home, pay removal, stamp duty, estate agent and solicitor fees, and have a little left over to spend on Hi-Def TVs and ab-crunchers without having to open their wallets once... and all in a week that's expected to see interest rates continuing to rise. More here.
Thanks to a Rat and Mouse reader for pointing me in the direction of this piece - which suggests that 7, Cavendish Avenue, the St John's Wood home owned (but not occupied) by Paul McCartney ever since the mid-60s, is on the market for £4.15 million. So far - however - online particulars evade me. In the meantime, if there's anything else (and I mean anything) you want to know about Macca and NW8, go here.
And it's not as friendly as it might be. It's tagged foxtonscockmobiles and its attention is turned to the Mini:
[Foxtons] offer their new recruits an incentive package that includes a Foxton's branded Mini complete with its own issue number. I have decided then, to start a group where we try and collect as many 'Foxtons Cock Mobiles' (as they will henceforth be deemed) as possible.
The "rules" are:
The entire issue number must be visible in the photograph. The picture must be titled thusly; 'Foxtons Cock Mobile' then the number. eg. "Foxtons Cock Mobile 421" It's a bit like a sticker book, let's try and collect the set.
According to research by PrimeMove, houses with garages could quickly rise in value by up to 20% if the Richmond-style parking tax is rolled out into middle-class suburbia.
There is a beautiful remnant of early Georgian architecture in Dalston Lane which the council of Hackney sees as being fit to be demolished, having allowed the area to fall to rack and ruin. Here is a blog for the campaigners who are trying with their local might to save Dalston theatre and a pair of 1820 Georgian Houses (this is being supported by the Georgian Society and SAVE British Heritage). This area of London needs to have sufficient Listing so that future generations will not have to suffer the atrocious mistakes of council plans (like the 60s, it seems that history tends to repeat itself).
And here's a picture (courtesy of above blog) of three unorthodox Dalston Theatre-goers, evicting a group of protesters who have apparently been inside the theatre since February
Things are clearly getting desperate. Visit the blog and look at the very interesting photographs of the potentially very lovely and definitely very important properties concerned... and if they leave you concerned, show your support.
There's an interesting piece in today's Times about the movers-and-smoothers who make the transition from one excessively luxurious dwelling to another as devoid as possible of those stresses and strains that all add up, eventually, to being able to look back on one's own life and say, "I was there." Look, if you're rich enough, you can even get your kids their own:
"Put it this way," [one smoother] says. "When one of our clients' daughters walked into her new room it was an exact replica of her old one. It was the same pink. Her bookshelves were up. Her toys were in her cupboards. And every single one of her dozens of teddies was in exactly the same position as they had been before: I know that because I took a Polaroid."
Don't admit to the Polaroid. Another smoother:
“We can wrap your underwear in tissue paper if that’s what you want.”
Hell, pay him enough and he'll keep it warm for you by popping it in his cheek pouch. Like I said, it's an interesting article. And I can see the need amongst the cash-rich but very time-poor for help during a house move. The whole process is a colossal drain. What I'm having problems with is the hands-wringing, back-breaking pride of the smoothers, who sound - almost to a one - like Hudson, from Upstairs, Downstairs.
We don't say it enough, but at the Rat and Mouse we appreciate our readers... all 2,500 of you who visit us each and every day (except, for some reason, Sundays... when it's apparently decreed that roughly 1,000 of you must rest and not look at property porn or read property gossip for a full 24 hours). We especially appreciate those readers who get involved. Every email, every comment (except these, because we have reason to believe they're all posted by one very sad actor person)... we appreciate them, and we want more of them. We know that sifting through the world's press (so you don't have to) for the best London property stories of the day is useful, but it's not enough for us. We enjoy ourselves most when we're being more of a "hub". And we can't be that without you. So - let's share this evil obsession. We want:
- Property development tips. New development in your area? Post us a pic as one building goes down or another goes up.
- Property news opinion. Boom or bust, tax and legislation... we want your views.
- Your impressions of your neighbourhood, real insider knowledge from each and every London postcode.
- Calls for property-related help - we'll post 'em, with pleasure - you monitor the comments.
- Your photographs... porn-worthy properties, new developments, extraordinary viewings... phone-snaps welcome.
- Estate agent tales - as a buyer, as a vendor, hell, as an agent. We want to hear the estate agents' side of things, too.
Frankly, we want to get to know you. Here's how it works... you email us here. We assume you'd prefer to remain anonymous and under no circumstances share or publish your name or email address... unless you specifically tell us it's okay. That's it. And thanks - as always - for reading.
The Telegraph takes a closer look at Amwell Street, and likes what it sees... a village on the edge of Islington with an active and proud residents' association, Victorian and Georgian homes (providing a range of accommodation) and posh shops.
The signs are that this [Abbey's super-mortgage] is more significant and may pave the way for a seismic shift in how much gearing banks and home buyers are prepared to tolerate. Just as more and more debt has transformed the dynamics of the private equity industry, so home owners and lenders may be learning to love — or at least tolerate — leverage. Bank of Ireland and Bristol & West have already relaxed their lending criteria, though not as far as Abbey.
There's an interesting essay by James Harding in today's Times which draws on research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers to suggest that - even with ftbs priced out of the market, house prices way ahead of earnings and interest rate rises possibly around the corner - there might be another few years of growth in the housing market. PWC offer up a one in three possibility of prices falling by 2010. But they also offer up a 38% chance that they'll have risen by more than 10%. Read the piece here.
When I set up the Rat and Mouse, I was sure the British - and especially London - obsession with the property market was something extreme. This morning, Radio 4's Today programme set the news agenda by making Abbey Nationals five-times-salary mortgage the headlines. More here.
Apparently, the graffiti problem outside Arsenal turncoat Ashley Cole's "north London mansion block" has become so bad, he's decided to sell his place and move. Anybody know where Cole lives? Anybody care to 
It's a game, in which you pilot a bulldozer and revel in the destruction of homes and businesses. Something tells me it won't be Number One in the holiday season gift list in the Middle East. For a glimpse into the mind of an altogether different species, go 
